Though the Red Cross Hospital has a burns and orthopaedic ward, facilities are scanty and workers must go to Bhavnagar city for treatment. Cases of major burns caused by chemicals and broken limbs or multiple-fracture cases come in daily. In many cases the workers end up with crippling effects — it is easy to come across workers with fingers missing.

The Tuberculosis Research Centre near Songadh on the Bhavnagar-Rajkot state highway receives several patients from Alang, nearly 60 kms away. R.M. Thakkar, the centre’s head, says many of his patients are Alang workers but there are no ready statistics available.

While their work environment is hazardous, living conditions are sub-human. Till last year, about 50,000 migrant workers packed themselves in a colony that had no drinking water or even rudimentary drainage or sewerage systems. The wooden cabins they built out of waste from the yards had no ventilation and often 10 to 12 persons shared a cabin. The result? Rampant air- and water-borne diseases added to the misery of the workers.

Nilu Vaishnav of Bhavnagar who has done extensive studies on the health of Alang’s workers, including on the prevalence of HIV, says their living conditions are sub-human, like a concentration camp. Though the number of workers at Alang this year has come down drastically due to a smaller number of ships coming in, the conditions are the same even with the world’s attention on Alang.

A major worry, according to Vaishnav, is the spread of HIV among migrant workers. Tests done on a random sample size of 1,500 workers revealed 15 HIV positive cases. At any given time there are more than 10,000 workers at Alang. On the other hand, Greenpeace reported 102 HIV positive cases in 2005. The side effects of Alang’s labour colony are being felt in 10 neighbouring villages, where a number of women have joined the mushrooming commercial sex trade.

... contd.